Well, all this is interesting to me, anyway, and that's what matters here. The Internet is a terrible thing for someone like me, who finds almost everything interesting.
Rachel Maddow: "This is a conspiracy theory that was cooked up by the guy who told people to break people's windows after health reform passed. But the right is hard-wired to believe stuff like this. ... It can be easy to forget that, on the right, they are susceptible enough to conspiracy theories like this, in their sort of closed-loop, fact-free universe of conservative media."
And listen to those gun-nuts she interviews in the street. That's a fact-free group if there ever was one! But this is where conspiracy enthusiasts on the right gravitate. (On the left, they're more into vaccines and 9/11 fantasies.)
But as Maddow points out, "Agitated people protesting on the street who are not good at explaining their views can be forgiven for sounding nonspecific, or even a little crazy about these things. But what those folks were articulating to me,... it's not just a random street protestor view, on the right. What those people were telling me on that street corner in Anchorage is how the right talks about the Obama administration even when they're standing at podiums."
I suspect that this is the direct result of Fox 'News.' Sure, every political party has its crazies - if some more than others - but usually, those crazies are on the fringe. Indeed, that's how it used to be even in the GOP. But not today. Today, the crazies are the Republican base. Today, crazy is mainstream in the GOP.
Some of that is undoubtedly racism. After all, the Republicans' notorious "Southern strategy" filled the party with racists in its successful attempt to take the South from the Democrats. These people have become absolutely hysterical about our first black president. (And note that Eric Holder, too, is black.)
And gun-nuts - I use that term appropriately, I think - seem to be prone to hysteria anyway. (Listen to Wayne LaPierre's speech at CPAC. Do you really wonder why I have such a poor opinion of the NRA?)
Well, conspiracy thinking in general has become mainstream in the Republican Party. Republican leaders thought to use those people - and did so successfully for many years - but now the crazies have taken control.
And until sane Americans repudiate today's extremist GOP, our nation will continue to suffer. If you think the Bush administration was a complete disaster for our country, you ain't seen nothin' yet!
Note: Thanks to Jeff for the link. This is a perfect example of why I love Rachel Maddow!
6 comments:
Jeff
said...
"And until sane Americans repudiate today's extremist GOP, our nation will continue to suffer."
I don't have much confidence this will happen. It seems every time a sane person calls BS on the Right, they just double-down on the crazy. I still have a sinking feeling this is not going to end well. This country may end up "going to the mattresses" as the mafia would say. Maybe it needs to; Clemeza said it himself in "The Godfather:" "These things gotta happen...Helps get rid of the bad blood."
As for that glass-breaking whack job who was frothing at the mouth for civil war, he should be careful what he wishes for. There's no guarantee "his side" would win.
In fact, Jeff, I think it's very clear that both sides would lose.
Progress is frustrating, difficult, sometimes even boring hard work. But violence would set us back generations.
Of course, some people on the right want to set us back generations. Some even pray for the end of the world. But let's hope people are saner than that. Sane people on both sides are willing to compromise.
(Admittedly, Democrats are often so willing to compromise that they won't stand for anything at all. But that's still not as bad as their opposite.)
Progress is indeed frustrating, especially when one side absolutely REFUSES to cooperate.
We have to remember that we're dealing with an ideology (the "Southern Strategy" Dixiecrats) that is holding a 150-year grudge. They never got over the Civil War. The hatred is very old, very deep, and very real.
This Rachel Maddow clip nicely explains this whole brouhaha to me. These guys are really paranoid about gun control. I'm as liberal as they come and I don't ever think about eliminating the 2nd amendment. Maybe Obama should join the NRA and promote gun ownership - would that make these people happy? It's fine by me.
I don't like the NRA at all, Jim, but no, that wouldn't make them happy. After all, it didn't make them happy when Obama chose the right-wing Republican plan for health care reform, did it?
Nothing will make them happy as long as a Democrat - and a black Democrat, at that - is in the White House.
As you've seen, these people tend to be conspiracy enthusiasts. The fact that Barack Obama has done nothing at all to push gun control is just evidence of his deep, dark (pun intended) plan. If he joined the NRA, that would just be more evidence of his fiendish plot.
Actually, you may be right, Jeff. Here's a Republican leader threatening violence over the Supreme Court's decision upholding their own health care plan!
I've come to expect that sort of thing from random crazies in the GOP base, but from the former spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party?
I'm a skeptic. I think it makes sense to have reasons for what I believe, so I apportion my belief to the evidence. You're welcome to disagree. Please, tell me I'm wrong. I probably don't agree with anyone about everything. Why should disagreement be a problem? Check the Pages section below for series posts and links to book reviews and game posts, as well as contact info. Unfortunately, I rarely blog at all, anymore. So don't expect new posts. - Bill
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. - Robert Wilensky
It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong - Richard Feynman
The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other. - Sir Francis Bacon
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. - Hal Clement
No matter how many times a theory meets its tests successfully, there can be no certainty that it will not be overthrown by the next observation. This, then, is a cornerstone of modern natural philosophy. It makes no claim of attaining ultimate truth. In fact, the phrase "ultimate truth" becomes meaningless, because there is no way in which enough observations can be made to make truth certain and, therefore, "ultimate". - Isaac Asimov
The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. - Treaty of Tripoli, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams (1797)
I don't doubt the sincerity of dowsers, but even after we've demonstrated that they can't produce results that are any better than chance they'll still go away believing in their abilities... It is like the mother whose son is caught shoplifting on tape. She wonders why someone would want to frame her child by producing a fake video. - James Randi
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church ... imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. - Mark Twain
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. - Bertrand Russell
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. - Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
This is not about proof. Science does not use proof. We favor evidence, and the work consists largely of the slow accumulation of evidence in support of ideas, not magically potent proofs that establish an idea as unassailable. - PZ Myers
No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. - President Barack Obama
The formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat. - Shekhar Gupta
We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs. - Carl Sagan
We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins
120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. - Sam Harris
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. - Michael Servetus, burned at the stake in 1553
Democracy is not about majority rule; it is about minority rights. If there is no culture of not simply tolerating minorities, but actually treating them with equal rights, real democracy can't take root. - Thomas L. Friedman
We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much apparent reason. - Thomas Macauley, 1830
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men. - Edward R. Murrow
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. - Thomas Huxley
There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. ... Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. - President Thomas Jefferson
To be elected in America, no matter from what party, the candidates have no choice but to year after year pledge to lower taxes further and further. We have become the nation of Ken and Barbie, looking good but very poor at the math. - Rack Jite
Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them. - Steve Eley
We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. - President Franklin D. Roosevelt
I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle. - Molly Ivins
In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. - H. L. Mencken
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill
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6 comments:
"And until sane Americans repudiate today's extremist GOP, our nation will continue to suffer."
I don't have much confidence this will happen. It seems every time a sane person calls BS on the Right, they just double-down on the crazy. I still have a sinking feeling this is not going to end well. This country may end up "going to the mattresses" as the mafia would say. Maybe it needs to; Clemeza said it himself in "The Godfather:" "These things gotta happen...Helps get rid of the bad blood."
As for that glass-breaking whack job who was frothing at the mouth for civil war, he should be careful what he wishes for. There's no guarantee "his side" would win.
In fact, Jeff, I think it's very clear that both sides would lose.
Progress is frustrating, difficult, sometimes even boring hard work. But violence would set us back generations.
Of course, some people on the right want to set us back generations. Some even pray for the end of the world. But let's hope people are saner than that. Sane people on both sides are willing to compromise.
(Admittedly, Democrats are often so willing to compromise that they won't stand for anything at all. But that's still not as bad as their opposite.)
Progress is indeed frustrating, especially when one side absolutely REFUSES to cooperate.
We have to remember that we're dealing with an ideology (the "Southern Strategy" Dixiecrats) that is holding a 150-year grudge. They never got over the Civil War. The hatred is very old, very deep, and very real.
This Rachel Maddow clip nicely explains this whole brouhaha to me. These guys are really paranoid about gun control. I'm as liberal as they come and I don't ever think about eliminating the 2nd amendment. Maybe Obama should join the NRA and promote gun ownership - would that make these people happy? It's fine by me.
I don't like the NRA at all, Jim, but no, that wouldn't make them happy. After all, it didn't make them happy when Obama chose the right-wing Republican plan for health care reform, did it?
Nothing will make them happy as long as a Democrat - and a black Democrat, at that - is in the White House.
As you've seen, these people tend to be conspiracy enthusiasts. The fact that Barack Obama has done nothing at all to push gun control is just evidence of his deep, dark (pun intended) plan. If he joined the NRA, that would just be more evidence of his fiendish plot.
Actually, you may be right, Jeff. Here's a Republican leader threatening violence over the Supreme Court's decision upholding their own health care plan!
I've come to expect that sort of thing from random crazies in the GOP base, but from the former spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party?
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